Midnight's Children Audiobook By Salman Rushdie cover art

Midnight's Children

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Midnight's Children

By: Salman Rushdie
Narrated by: Lyndam Gregory
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Man Booker Prize Winner, 1981

Salman Rushdie holds the literary world in awe with a jaw-dropping catalog of critically acclaimed novels that have made him one of the world's most celebrated authors. Winner of the prestigious Booker of Bookers, Midnight's Children tells the story of Saleem Sinai, born on the stroke of India's independence.

©1981 Salman Rushdie (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Psychological Sagas South Asian Creators Funny Witty Feel-Good

Critic reviews

“Burgeons with life, with exuberance and fantasy . . . Rushdie is a writer of courage, impressive strength, and sheer stylistic brilliance.” (The Washington Post Book World)

“A marvelous epic . . . Rushdie’s prose snaps into playback and flash-forward . . . stopping on images, vistas, and characters of unforgettable presence. Their range is as rich as India herself.” (Newsweek)

“Extraordinary . . . one of the most important [novels] to come out of the English-speaking world in this generation.” (The New York Review of Books)

Featured Article: The Best Indian Authors to Listen to Right Now


"India," to quote actress and human rights activist Shabana Azmi, "is a country that lives in several centuries simultaneously." Just as those different time periods seem to coexist in one place, so do the voices of brilliant literary talents. Each of these writers and their works have contributed to help the world better understand this expansive country and its beautiful, multifaceted culture, whether it be from within India’s own borders or through the memory of its customs and traditions from distant continents.

Featured Article The Best Indian Authors to Listen to Right Now
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The reader overplayed it. I think he was trying to add to the humor in the story and in so doing, killed the funny. Subtlety is a key in these performances. I wish they would have had Simon Vance do it, or Simon Prebble or .... well anyway.
The story itself is funny and touching and provocatve. Historical fiction at its best, telling the story of the times with a wide vision, and at the same time not loosing the thred of a human, personal story. And of course, there's a bit of magic, a bit of destiny... good stuff. I would download it again if they released another performance. Maybe they will get Grimus out soon? I hope.

great book, poor narration

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Though Midnight's Children won the Booker of Bookers, this text is less engaging and, I believe, less successful than The Satanic Verses. While MC tells the story of one particularly magical child, Saleem Sinai, who is writing this story for the purpose of telling his young child, who perhaps retains some magical qualities of his parents. The story is also the narrative of India and Pakistan, and the tensions that have existed since their twin births. While the story of Saleem Sinai takes many turns, the narrative takes its most significant turn when Rushdie unleashes a scathing critique of Indiria Ghandi's leadership during "The Emergency." Rushdie, as he explains in the Preface, was sued for libel over one particular sentence that Ghandi found offensive, regarding her relationship with her son and her role in her husband's demise. While Rushdie removed the offending sentence, this incident proves that his takedown of Ghandi was, in fact, accurate over her power grab. This book demonstrates the necessity of literature, both in how narrative allows for someone to make sense of events and the power of literature as social critique. For anyone interested in serious literature, this book should be engaged with for both the pleasure of literature and the power of literature.

Twin Births of India and the Nose

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Where does Midnight's Children rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I have listened to a lot of books, it is among the best.

What did you like best about this story?

I learned the story of India from the revolution on through an amazing story that allows you be a part of that history. The rhythym and timing of storytelling is amazing.

What about Lyndam Gregory’s performance did you like?

Awesome! The indian accent and the rolling voice was like music. I laughed many times as well and every other emotion.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Every emothion is felt reading this book.

Any additional comments?

Enjoy!

The history of India in one mans face

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Lyndam Gregory is pitch perfect in his reading. He total inhabits the many characters presented in the novel.

Great Performance

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First and foremost, I am a Midwest white woman and trying to differentiate Indian names on audio proved difficult for me. This book followed listening to A House For Mr. Biswas - both interesting and enlightening, but challenging in very different ways. Thank goodness for Google and Wikipedia in lieu of a college course. Those 2 entities will help make sense of this complicated novel (which can't be pigeonholed into any one genre). It certainly piqued my interest in what exactly went down with India's Independence, followed by Partition, etc.

From the beginning, when someone's tears are described as diamonds, I was entranced. The narrator was arguably one of the best I've heard, capturing the lilt and expression of Indian English, while expressing the words into life in a way we seldom get to hear outside of good theatre. He was marvelous!

So many great/ good things about this story, but I have to admit to having to slog through sections that related more to the history. I love history and I believe a reading in print would have been easier, but this narration is so good, I stand by this audio book for one of your readings. I'm 67, so I'll be moving on to another of The Modern Library's list of the Best English Novels of the 20th Century (this is ranked as #90).

The narration was the best!

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Beautifully narrated. The voice is so engaging, it just takes you to the land of midnights children.

Beautifully narrated

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The State as a projection of Man

As his sophomore novel #salmanrushdie attempted to tell the children complicated story of #indiaindependence through #midnightschildren . The story is narrated from the main character's perspective in an autobiographical approach of #saleemsinai who had the unique historical quirk of being born at the stroke of midnight precisely when #india became an independent state and the first thirty years as #pakistan and #bangladesh undergo their own independence wars. Born to a middle class Indian family in #bombay , the story travels across from #kashmir where Saleem's grandparents were born to #agra , #newdelhi , #lahore as his parents followed the lead of many #muslim Indians and relocated to #pakistan to escape the #hindu majority of India.

Salman Rushdie employs #magicalrealism which particularly makes sense with the religious and mythological aspects that pervade Indian culture. At the same time, the book details many well documented historical events of the time. Rusdie's debut novel is generally dismissed though it applied many similar devices. This second novel, however, gave him the fame and recognition previously missed, selling million copies in the just the #unitedkingdom alone. it also earned him the #1981 #bookerprize and landed him at #90 on the #modernlibrarytop100novels which is how it landed on my reading list. It can be a bit difficult to discern one character from another in some of the secondary characters but part of the fun is his frequent literary allusions peppered throughout this very long novel. Rushdie also gave very vivid descriptions of the varied and unique regions that make up the #subcontinent , many on yet another list of mine.
#readtheworldchallenge #globalreadingchallenge #englishliterature #indianliterature #readtheworld

The State as a projection of Man

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Midnight's Children isn't an easy book to listen to first time around; and it certainly took me many hours of listening before getting a grip (that, too, somewhat tenuous) on the story line, which is full of twists, and exceptions, and clarifications, and which jumps back and forth in time and points of view.

Nonetheless, it is a really funny story. I must have laughed out loud at least few times. The text and the narration easily capture the irony and hypocrisy one finds in India (and Pakistan).

As to the narration, well ... I think Lyndam Gregory has put in a lot of effort to get it right. To bring the text to life. Unfortunately he didn't succeed. He simply couldn't pronounce any of the Indian names or terms properly. At times I had to refer to the text (which, thankfully, was available for download online) to understand what was being read.

I plan to listen to again.

Good listen

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Quite a story! Unbelievably funny and yet poignant, this book is a must read/listen. This is a true modern day classic in every possible way. I can believe that in the future, book lovers will adopt this masterpiece in a similar fashion to works from Dickens, Austen, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, or any other great author.

Saleem Sinai, the boy with the elephant nose captured my imagination from the onset. Born at midnight on India’s dawn, swapped at birth, possessing telepathic smarts, he takes us on a life journey filled with amazing experiences in a crowded landscape of eccentric people. Mr. Rushdie outdoes himself with his mystical and magical prose in this remarkable novel.

As I read this book, I wanted transport myself to Methwold's Estate, home to Saleem in Book 1, and greet every individual of this crazy community. Once you start the journey and immerse yourself in the pages, you will love each character, even the large kneed Shiva, Saleem’s enemy. Who wouldn’t want to meet Saleem’s grandmother, Reverend Mother, or Pia the beautiful aunt, with whom he has a hilarious sexual encounter? So many colorful, humorous, and tragic characters line the pages within this book. Mr. Rushdie has a great imagination.

The narration of this book is simply marvelous. The best I have ever heard. Do not miss this.

Booker of Booker – twice! Magical offering.

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What did you love best about Midnight's Children?

This is a fabulous, ambitious book, magnificently written. The narration is also well-done, if sometimes a little bit too flamboyant; because the story is so thick and complex, a more measured narration may have been better, but the narrator has done a fabulous job of highlighting Rushdie's fantastic prose, and bringing the characters to life by his performance. This is the magic of a good audiobook: the marriage of a fine performance and first-rate prose. The only drawback to this recording is that the recorded chapter breaks do not mirror the actual book chapters. So, it makes it difficult to switch back and forth from the written text and the audiobook, which some readers like to do.

Great Book; Outstanding Narration

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